recovery partition not working anymore

[libit]

I mistakenly run "fdisk/mbr" on my T60 and now I can still properly boot into windows, but if I try to boot into the recovery partition (pressing the thinkvantage blue button while booting), that doesn't work anymore.

How can I get back the recovery partition to work???

Thanks
Libit

[crazyfrog]

Here is the solution: Rescue and Recovery - Recovery repair diskette.

But the problem is you need to find an external USB floppy drive.

[arlab]

You have a CD drive, I've made an ISO: http://forum.thinkpads.com/viewtopic.php?t=56398

[libit]

Thank you a lot. It worked and I can again use F11 to boot into R&R.

However it is not identical to my previous one. Fdisk messed only with the first sector of the HD, so I saved a copy of the first 100 sectors before and after running this utility and then compared the effect.

Clearly it modified the first sector, but not only that: it changed 11 sectors overall (sectors 0-2, 5-7, 12-14 and 32-33)
My third sector had 2 messages in it:
"Error loading virtualization module. Contact network administrator"
and
"To boot to the Rescue and Recovery Environment, Press F11"

After running the utility, the first message is completely blanked out (why?) and the second slightly changed to "To start your Lenovo Rescue and Recovery program, Press F11"

Then it has moved some code that before appeared at sectors 12-14 to sectors 5-7 (and then blanked out 12-14). Finally I previously had another couple of sectors (32 and 33) with code (surely R&R related) and those have been cleared too.

Maybe I got a newer version (with the Lenovo name) but the old one maybe had more features (virtualization, more code), but I'm just guessing.

Ideas?

Can anybody upload the first 48 sectors of an (unmodified) T60 somewhere? I can post mine of course.

[robvarga]

Thank you a lot. It worked and I can again use F11 to boot into R&R.

However it is not identical to my previous one. Fdisk messed only with the first sector of the HD, so I saved a copy of the first 100 sectors before and after running this utility and then compared the effect.

Clearly it modified the first sector, but not only that: it changed 11 sectors overall (sectors 0-2, 5-7, 12-14 and 32-33)
My third sector had 2 messages in it:
"Error loading virtualization module. Contact network administrator"
and
"To boot to the Rescue and Recovery Environment, Press F11"

After running the utility, the first message is completely blanked out (why?) and the second slightly changed to "To start your Lenovo Rescue and Recovery program, Press F11"

Then it has moved some code that before appeared at sectors 12-14 to sectors 5-7 (and then blanked out 12-14). Finally I previously had another couple of sectors (32 and 33) with code (surely R&R related) and those have been cleared too.

Maybe I got a newer version (with the Lenovo name) but the old one maybe had more features (virtualization, more code), but I'm just guessing.

Ideas?

Can anybody upload the first 48 sectors of an (unmodified) T60 somewhere? I can post mine of course.

If you tell me how to do so in Windows XP SP2, then I can.

Mine is a 2007-7KG (UT07Kxx) with English Windows XP SP2.

Best regards,

Robert

[libit]

There is a MS utility that should be able to do that.
DiskProbe (dskprobe.exe) which you can download as part of the Windows XP Support Tools (http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/deta ... laylang=en)
However that doens't work for me (it seems that something else already has the drive handle open, so diskprobe cannot get it).

The other way is to shutdown windows and boot with any linux livecd.
From linux you can use the dd command to read the sectors:
dd if=/dev/sda of=/tmp/sectors count=48
and then copy the file to same storage (flash key, your windows partition, network...).

Looking for other solution, I've found a small and free util that can do it. It's HxD and you can find it here: http://mh-nexus.de/en/programs.php. Download the portable one so you don't even have to "install" it.
Form main menu go to Extra->open disk, and open you first disk in read-only mode (so you don't risk messing with it).
Then go to edit->select block and select from 0 to 6000 (512*48 in hex), then do either export->asEditorView to save to a file or edit->copy as->editor_view and then paste into your preferred editor.

Anyway, whatever you use to access the disk, be very careful and make sure you know what you are doing since you can easily break your system.